Why it is that the political killings of party members and councillors receive notable public attention, while the murders of activists in a large and sustained movement of impoverished people are often passed over in silence? By Nation Nyoka for New Frame.
Richard Pithouse, Mail & Guardian
The political assassination is not a phenomenon that is restricted to KwaZulu-Natal. But there is no doubt that it is overwhelmingly concentrated in that province. Until the establishment of the Moerane commission in October 2016, the scale of political violence in the province received very little national media attention, and was not generally understood to be a national crisis.
Academics, activists and journalists elsewhere in the country seldom grasped just how routine death threats, armed intimidation and murder had become in KwaZulu-Natal, or how brazenly local power- brokers, such as ward councillors, police officers and business interests — often entwined in mutually enabling forms of gangsterism — participated in the organisation of local forms of violent despotism. Continue reading
Greg Nicolson, The Daily Maverick
As the land debate rages and occupations continue across the country, two members of the shack-dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo were shot this week. The group blames the ANC for failing to provide land and targeting those who take it.
S’fiso Ngcobo was critical of the ANC when he addressed over 1,000 people at a rally on Saturday. Three days later the Abahlali baseMjondolo eKukhanyeni chairperson was shot dead while buying a cold drink metres from his home.
“This is political, we know very well,” said Thapelo Mohapi from the shack-dwellers’ movement. “In Abahlali we have a history of ANC people killing our members.” Continue reading
25 May 2018
SAFTU condemns assassination of S’fiso Ngcobo
The South African Federation of Trade Unions strongly condemns the assassination of S’fiso Ngcobo, chairperson of the eKukhanyeni branch of community group Abahlali baseMjondolo, in Marianhill, KZN.
Just after he left an assembly on 22 May 2018, at around 7:30 pm, he stepped out of his home to buy a cool drink from a shop in a container just a few meters away. He was shot multiple times by a group of unknown men. The police were called but took more than three hours to arrive even though the local police station is nearby. Continue reading
Thursday, 24 May 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
S’fiso Ngcobo
Statement on the Assassination of S’fiso Ngcobo
On Saturday our branch in eKukhanyeni, in Marianhill, held a very successful and well attended assembly. On Tuesday night, at around 7:30 pm, our chairperson in the branch, S’fisio Ngcobo, stepped out of his home to buy a cooldrink from a shop in a container next to his home. He had received death threats and was aware that it was not safe to be out at night. But the container was just a few meters from his home. He was shot, multiple times, by a group of unknown men. The police were called. They took more than three hours to arrive even though the local police station is nearby. Despite the danger large numbers of comrades immediately gathered at Ngcobo’s home. Continue reading